2021 Windmill Under 5s Preschool

Hallmark August 2021. Windmill Under 5 Preschool by Natasha Kann, Chairperson

We have finally made it to the end of the school year; and what a year it has been! A huge thank you to all our families for helping us all stay safe by following our rules to ensure that we have not had to close due to this uncertain year.

We were able to say goodbye to our school leavers, which is always emotional for all involved. The teaching team have done an excellent job getting them ready for 'big school’, throughout the challenges faced and will be sending them off with lots of happy memories. They were also lucky enough to have some tennis sessions with Dan from the Tennis Club too, which they absolutely loved and was a great way to practice getting changed into their PE kit!

We have spent the term looking at how things grow and flourish. We have planted beans and sunflowers and watched caterpillars grow into beautiful butterflies before releasing them on to the field. We have been fortunate that we have the field beyond ours where we have been delighted to watch tractors and various farm machinery getting it ready for the cows to come back.

Writing this in the sunshine makes it hard to remember the really wet weather we had earlier last month, but this did help us with our under the sea project looking at animals and plants that live in the water! The children have learnt some great movements to songs and we showcased these to the parents at a socially distanced Sports Day where great fun was had by everyone who took part.

Windmills would not be the fantastic preschool that it is without the excellent teaching team, who have worked so hard all of the year to ensure that the children haven’t noticed that anything different has been going on! Special thanks to our Manager Tracey, and our Business Manager Sarah, who keep us all organised and on top of all the ever-changing regulations and requirements.

We are also so grateful to our very committed committee and parents, who do a huge amount for Windmills in their own time. We will all enjoy a well-earned rest over the summer and look forward to starting the autumn, hopefully back to normal, in September.

Due to the restrictions in place, again, many of our usual fundraising and social events have had to be cancelled. This not only effects our ever-needed fundraising but also meant that many of our families never really got more than the passing hello in the morning queue. Hopefully things will return to normal in September so more social interaction will be able to take place and we can have our family quiz nights in person rather than on Zoom!

With this being said, however, we were able to hold our annual summer raffle and would like to say a huge thank you to all the local businesses and families that donated such wonderful prizes! Thanks to: The Black Horse, The Whip Inn, The Pink and Lily, The Co-op (Walters Ash), Sue’s House of Cakes, Beckonscot Model Village, Dan (Lacey Green and Loosley Row Tennis Club), Sizzorhands, Countrywide Coaches and The Goat Centre who helped us the raise a fantastic £360!